IN GOMEL DIRECTION

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 308, 23 September 1943, Page 7

IN GOMEL DIRECTION

New Russian Thrust LONDON, September 22. A Russian communique for the first time indicates a thrust in the Gomel direction. Tlie threat to this important railway junction comes mainly frt>m the south-east, where the Germans are offering hard resistance. The Red armies have broadened the line of tjieir advance toward Kiev to 100 miles, threatening to outflank it. With the fall of Chernigov, Hitler must now pin both his hopes and his intuition on the Dnieper harrier, 30 miles away. Chernigov did not fall without a bitter struggle. The Desna River is broad at this point, and German artillery barrages covered both banks. It took the Russians three days to’get enough men across to outflank the Germans, who even then did not retire.

A correspondent says that Cossack patrols ahead of the main Russian forces on the Dnieper bend sector have already refreshed their horses in the waters of the great river. Moscow radio says that Soviet aircraft last night, without loss, bombed the railway junctions of Vitebsk, Gomel ami Jankoi, scoring direct hits on' several ammunition-laden trains which blew up.

GERMANS CHANGE TONE (Received September 22, 11.35 p.m.) LONDON, September 22.. A German military spokesman, receiving the foreign Press in Berlin yesterday, admitted that the German withdrawal in Russia was now a “large-scale retreat,” caused by a shortage of reserves and the Allied landings in Italy. ARTIFICIAL FOG WEAPON (Received September 22, 11.40 p.m.) LONDON, September 22. A new weapon which the Germans tried out in Russia and used in Sicily was described by a colonel broadcasting ou Berlin radio. A special grenade throws a thick fog over a wide radius, enabling concealment of troop movements. Fog units are thrown in at focal points, providing support and relief for infantry. They are called “Stukas ou foot,” because they have the same effect on the enemy.